Cylinder #3 spark plug stuck

[bosszhp]

Encountered a problem today while changing the spark plugs on my ZHP. All the other spark plugs came out fine except for cylinder #3 which is stuck. It takes a lot of force to barely get 1/4th a rotation in the right direction. I sprayed some WD-40 down there and tried again, which seemed to help at first until I just couldn't get the wrench to move at all. Just sprayed some PB blaster down there and currently letting it soak. I think the problem is that the hex head of the spark plug is broke off. I'm not entirely sure what to do at this point, would warming the car up a little bit help? I don't think that would be a good idea though since I sprayed WD-40 on the plug...

23516

[Johnmadd]

Breaker bar/cheater pipe. Hope it's not cross threaded.

[Vas]

Yup breaker bar.

[bosszhp]

Alright I'll give that a try tomorrow morning. Don't have one so gotta run to the store and buy one. Hope that works.

[Johnmadd]

You can just put a jack handle or piece of pipe that will fit over the handle of your ratchet and that will work.

[Johnmadd]

I've even put a l deep well socket that will fit over the handle of the ratchet and some extensions to make a cheater bar.

[ELCID86]

Try turning a bit then tighten then loosen then tighten. It'll help prevent cross threading. Good luck.


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"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - an e46f member

[bosszhp]

You can just put a jack handle or piece of pipe that will fit over the handle of your ratchet and that will work.

Unfortunately I couldn't find anything to create a make shift breaker bar with so looks like I'll have to buy one. Just tried again after letting the PB blaster sit on there for a few hours, still no luck. I can get it about 1/8th of a turn with a lotttt of force then eventually the wrench just skips (couldn't think of a better word). It actually seems harder to turn it the other way. First spark plug change on the ZHP isn't going exactly as planned lol

[ELCID86]

So what's the worse case here? If the plug breaks off or strips out what should he do?


---
"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - an e46f member

[Johnmadd]

So what's the worse case here? If the plug breaks off or strips out what should he do?


---
"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - an e46f member

Not quite sure, worse case scenario is pull the head and drill it out and Re tap it I suspect.

[Johnmadd]

I've even put a l deep well socket that will fit over the handle of the ratchet and some extensions to make a cheater bar.

Did you try this?

[bosszhp]

Did you try this?

I don't have any deep sockets that will fit over it. I recently moved to an apartment in Florida so most of my tools are back at my house in PA. Pretty much had to buy a bunch of tools before even doing the plugs because I didn't have any.

[Johnmadd]

Gotcha.

[ELCID86]

I know you might be in a hurry but his bar is amazing fwiw.

23519


---
"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - an e46f member

[Johnmadd]

I know you might be in a hurry but his bar is amazing fwiw.

23519


---
"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - an e46f member

That's why I put a pipe over my ratchet, it still ratchets and has the leverage I need but I'm cheap lol.

[Johnmadd]

And my craftsman ratchet is free to replace if I need to do so.

[Johnmadd]

I'm definitely a "shadetree" mechanic. :)

[bosszhp]

I'm cheap too but short of searching through a dumpster for a pipe to fit over my ratchet I'm stuck shelling out for a breaker bar. Too bad I could use that money for a new alcantara ebrake boot haha

[Johnmadd]

:rofl

[Just_George]

I'm cheap too but short of searching through a dumpster for a pipe to fit over my ratchet I'm stuck shelling out for a breaker bar. Too bad I could use that money for a new alcantara ebrake boot haha

Go to your local Harbor Freight and you can buy a pretty decent breaker bar for like $12. Yeah, it's not Snap On, but it's kinda hard to screw up a breaker bar...

[ELCID86]

Go to your local Harbor Freight and you can buy a pretty decent breaker bar for like $12. Yeah, it's not Snap On, but it's kinda hard to screw up a breaker bar...

+1.


---
"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - an e46f member

[TheFinanceGuy]

I've seen this over on the E36 boards often, as they are getting old, and deferred maintenance leads to stuck plugs.

Seems the best way is to use Kroil oil and back the plug out 1/2 turn, then in 1/4 turn, rinse and repeat until out. Brute force will be required, and hope that the threads are not crossed.

The crossed, I would go the route of bringing it to an indy who has had experience with this.

Since you are able to move the plug, it sounds like it is just stuck.

[danewilson77]

Put all plugs back in, drive to indy. Tell them you want your plugs changed.

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[TheFinanceGuy]

Put all plugs back in, drive to indy. Tell them you want your plugs changed.

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:facepalm

[bosszhp]

About to give it a go with a breaker bar (Harbor Freight had one for $8!), PB blaster has sat overnight. Really don't want to have to go to my Indy after all this hassle but if I really can't get it I guess I don't have a choice.

[bosszhp]

The breaker bar worked!! This was what came out of there after all that work: 23520

[bosszhp]

Small victory but on to the next problem, waiting for a coil pack to come in because cylinder 1 is shot. Also noticed my coolant was empty, leaking out somewhere despite my indy just replacing my waterpump and thermostat in October. :facepalm Also had a small plume of smoke come out of my exhaust on startup after putting in the new plugs, is that normal? Burn off of excess oil? Never happened before.

[TheFinanceGuy]

Congratulations! That thing looks nasty.

[Johnmadd]

Good job. Smoke is probably just carbon burning out since it's firing stronger now.

[Just_George]

I'd say you were due for new plugs... The plume of smoke out the exhaust is likely from the solvents you used to free the stuck spark plug.

[bosszhp]

The car is still running rough but the ignition coil I ordered from Turner won't be here till Thursday. Is it ok to drive it a little bit until then on the bad coil? Trips would be 5 miles or less.

[Johnmadd]

Should be fine.

[TheFinanceGuy]

It won't hurt anything. Have you confirmed that it is the coil that is dead? Move the coil to a different spot, if the misfire follows, then it's the coil.

[ELCID86]

Whew. I know you are relieved.


---
"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - an e46f member

[bosszhp]

It won't hurt anything. Have you confirmed that it is the coil that is dead? Move the coil to a different spot, if the misfire follows, then it's the coil.

Can I swap any coil or does it have to be a specific one? It's cylinder #1 that I'd be swapping to another cylinder.

[az3579]

Have you physically seen any coolant leaks?

Coolant disappearing, smoke out of the exhaust, rough running... check your oil for any milky-ness... I hope there isn't a bad headgasket situation.

You should be fine to drive with that single bad coil, though be warned; replacing one coil pack may not be enough. You might as well do all of them. Another always follows eventually. They're easy enough to replace, so I guess you could just keep going down the "replace as they fail" route if you chose to do so.

[bosszhp]

Have you physically seen any coolant leaks?

Coolant disappearing, smoke out of the exhaust, rough running... check your oil for any milky-ness... I hope there isn't a bad headgasket situation.

You should be fine to drive with that single bad coil, though be warned; replacing one coil pack may not be enough. You might as well do all of them. Another always follows eventually. They're easy enough to replace, so I guess you could just keep going down the "replace as they fail" route if you chose to do so.

I'll check the oil although my indy just replaced it less than 100 miles ago and didn't inform me of any irregularities. It's hard to tell but when I look down by the expansion tank it looks like there is a little pool down there. Just noticed today because the coolant level low light came on and sure enough the expansion tank was basically empty. Truth be told I ordered a coil pack before even checking when I saw two cylinder 1 misfire codes assuming it was the plug and ignition coil but upon inspection when changing the plugs the coil appeared to be OK. Will swap them and then read the codes to see if the misfire follows. Hope I'm not on the cusp of a bigger problem here.

[az3579]

You should be okay then on the head gasket front. Probably something simple causing your issue.

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[TheFinanceGuy]

Can I swap any coil or does it have to be a specific one? It's cylinder #1 that I'd be swapping to another cylinder.

I would swap coils 1 and 2, if the misfire follows to #2, then you have a bad coil. If the misfire is still present in #1, then you have a different issue on your hands.

I will say, the chances of it being as simple as the coil, is very high.

[bosszhp]

I would swap coils 1 and 2, if the misfire follows to #2, then you have a bad coil. If the misfire is still present in #1, then you have a different issue on your hands.

I will say, the chances of it being as simple as the coil, is very high.

Just swapped the coils and had the codes read again, still a cylinder 1 misfire. What should I check next? Is it possible that a broken F connector line from the intake boot could cause this (although I would have expected a lean code from that not a misfire). It just broke when I replaced my DISA a couple of days ago and before that the car was running fine...

23528

[TheFinanceGuy]

Tape it back together as a temp fix and see.

Check all of your grounds on that connection to the coil as well.

[bosszhp]

Tape it back together as a temp fix and see.

Check all of your grounds on that connection to the coil as well.

Upon visual inspection they seem fine but I'm going to pull the railing thing off and check under there (if that makes sense). Anything in particular to look for?

Edit: could a leaky VCG be the problem? There seems to be oil coming from the VCG right above cylinder 1...

[az3579]

Make sure the wiring harness for the #1 coil isn't damaged in any way.

[TheFinanceGuy]

23529

Check the harness where the red arrow is pointing and make sure you have good connection on the two circles.

BP suggests to check the wiring harness as well, that is the red wiggly line at the bottom. Might want to remove/unclip that plastic cover to ensure everything looks normal.

[bosszhp]

Harness and connection seems ok albeit it a little oil under either the long plastic holder thing. Going to do the VCG while I'm this far.
23530

[TheFinanceGuy]

Yeah, that all looks good. Might need to do a compression test.

Things that cause a misfire are no spark, no fuel, or no ka-boom. If you have no compression, then no ka-boom.

[bosszhp]

I think I'm just going to give up and take it to my Indy, let them figure it out and do my VANOS seals as well. :sigh

[TheFinanceGuy]

The white flag already! NO!

[bosszhp]

Well the strangest thing just happened, I decided to try my new coil from Turner that just came even though I pretty much ruled out a coil problem and it appears to have fixed the problem!! About to take her for a drive and find out for sure, SES is still on but its definitely running on all cylinders now. Fingers crossed...

[TheFinanceGuy]

Maybe you have two bad coils? I know I have a bad coil in my X5, and several members here reported after one went, another went...

[bosszhp]

Running good! Went back to Autozone and had the codes read again and now the cylinder 2 misfire showed up so I'm guessing it was the coil but when I brought it in earlier after swapping them it just didn't show up yet. :dunno either way all is good, for now haha

[TheFinanceGuy]

That is good to know. Time to remove coil two now.

Good trouble shooting!

[bosszhp]

That is good to know. Time to remove coil two now.

Good trouble shooting!

Actually I think the cylinder 2 misfire was from when I swapped the bad cylinder 1 coil to cylinder 2. Had the codes cleared so we'll see.

[Johnmadd]

Actually I think the cylinder 2 misfire was from when I swapped the bad cylinder 1 coil to cylinder 2. Had the codes cleared so we'll see.

I agree with you.

[TheFinanceGuy]

Actually I think the cylinder 2 misfire was from when I swapped the bad cylinder 1 coil to cylinder 2. Had the codes cleared so we'll see.

Ah. Agree as well. Misunderstanding on my part.


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